Rival Indian law firms in tussle over office head

by |
25 Oct 2016

Allie Sanchez

Indian outfit Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) has taken its former Chennai office head to court over allegations relating to confidentiality and non-compete clauses.

According to court filings, CAM alleged that the former head of its Chennai office, Dorothy Thomas, resigned from the law firm, along with 11 other employees to join rival firm Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co.

The High Court filings further accuse Thomas and company of resigning on October 3 and eventually “unauthorisedly remained absent from the Chennai office” in “flagrant breach” of the partnership agreement.

Further, the document said Thomas copied confidential documents belonging to CAM and used the information “to solicit the clients of CAM.”

CAM is applying for a hold order preventing Thomas from soliciting for work and compelling her to return confidential data until the arbitration is concluded.

CAM and Shardul Amarchand are fragments of what used to be India’s largest law firm, Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A Shroff & Co. The two brothers, Cyril and Shardul, who took it over, split up the firm over an ownership dispute last year, and created two rival practices.